Blake Shelton’s Mom Reveals His Boyhood Nickname

Blake Shelton may be a country music superstar, but to his mama, he’s still the boy she raised in the small town of Ada, Okla. on five acres of sprawling land. Dorothy Shelton recently revealed the singer’s boyhood nickname — and how he got it.

From the time he could walk, Shelton loved being outdoors, and would spend his time catching bugs, digging under rocks, and enjoying the creek that ran through his family’s backyard. He used to catch turtles and crawdads in that creek, and after catching the lively creatures, he’d come home with his treasures.

In fact, he brought home so many frogs that his mom started calling him “Toad.” And, sometimes she still does.

“We had to drag him into the house at night,” she tells Men’s Journal. “He loved all animals: grasshoppers, locusts, lizards, snakes, worms. One time I had a flyswatter and I killed a fly, and he cried.” Now that’s a heartwarming (and funny) image: the super confident singer crying over a dead fly.

Mrs. Shelton also recalls that in junior high, Shelton had two pet raccoons, and because of his love for all things animal and outdoor-related, she thought he’d grow up to be a veterinarian or a forest ranger. Instead, he became a country singer and married Miranda Lambert, who has an unbeatable compassion for four-legged friends. They live on a ranch full of animals she’d picked up from … well, everywhere.

Dorothy isn’t the only one to spill dirt on Shelton. Sister Endy refutes his story of being a teenage Hugh Hefner. “He didn’t look quite like he does now,” she says. “He was a little chubbier, he had a mullet going on, glasses. He didn’t have too much success.”

Although he’s now known for his role as a successful judge on ‘The Voice’ and highly regarded albums, Shelton will always be “Toad” at heart — at least to Mama Shelton.

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